From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Sports, Hon Ekele Adams, has promised to deploy every legislative weapon, at the disposal of his committee, to ensure speedy passage into law both the National Sports Commission (NSC) and Sports University Bills left inconclusive by the ninth Assembly.
Adams gave the assurance when he addressed the media in Abuja to announce the postponement of the proposed summit with sports stakeholders earlier scheduled for Thursday this week.
Announcing that he is in a familiar terrain he knows too well, Hon Adams hinged the postponement of the Sports summit on the difficulty of many stakeholders securing flight to Abuja due the uncertainty of the proposed nationwide strike by the organised labour unions.
On the passage of the NSC and Sports University Bills, he said: “Before I was given the responsibility of chairing the Sports Committee, I campaigned to my constituency on a five-point agenda targeted at repositioning sports. I have the target to bring the best sports school in Africa to Nigeria.
“Now that I am heading the House Committee on Sports, we will do everything possible to ensure that those two pending bills are passed into law before I leave office. I can tell you that I am not under any form of pressure to deliver this responsibility. It is a terrain I know very well.
“I want to assure the sports family that one of them has taken over sports legislative responsibility. I played the game to the highest level, managed the game of football and I am assuring that we are going to meet up with the dreams and aspirations of many Nigerians concerning the development and improvement of sports in the country. We must return sports to its pride of place and lost glorious days in Nigeria,” he quipped in his introduction.
Confirming the postponement of the summit, he said: “I want to announce the cancellation of the proposed sports summit because the strike action from labour unions made it difficult for my stakeholders to book their flights.”
He also set a utopic target to the Super Falcons, charging the Nigerian ladies to bring the FIFA Women World Cup trophy home to unite the country further. “My appeal to the Super Falcons is to know that millions of Nigerians depend on them for happiness. They should understand that they are the source of happiness to many Nigerians now. They should bring the trophy back to Nigeria,” he charged.